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Cancel Memberships

When was the last time you went to the gym?

Do you need that membership?

Write down all of the places that you’re currently paying membership fees and eliminate the ones you haven’t used in the past month.

Use More Coupons

If you have the patience for extreme couponing, kudos.

But if you’re anything like me and find the process of couponing more of a hassle than it’s worth, I have news for you.

It can actually be really easy to find coupons!

Check your local flyers, sign up for deal-alert websites and take advantage of sign-up bonuses.

Stop Going Out to Eat

Once I started tracking how much money I spend every month, I realized that my eating habits had to change. Fast.

So, I stopped going out to eat and started eating at home instead. This alone literally saved me almost $200 every month.

Even by going out to eat ONE less time each month, you could save hundreds of dollars at the end of the year!

Start Meal Planning

If you decide to start eating at home more often, you need to learn about meal planning.

This has been a lifesaver for me.

Not only does meal planning help me save money, but it also helps me eat healthier, produce less waste and saves me time.

I highly recommend trying out a weekly meal planning service like $5 Meal Plan.

For $5 a month, they will send delicious meal plans and cheap shopping lists directly to your email. Each meal costs around $2 per person or less! Seriously, it takes all the hard work out of meal planning.

Stop Drinking + Smoking

Drinking and smoking are extremely expensive habits that are doing you more harm than good. If you’re looking for ways to save money – it might be a good idea to start here.

Visit the Library

When was the last time you visited the library?

Because I was just there yesterday.

The library is full of free resources and honestly, I’m there twice a week minimum.

You can rent books, ebooks, audiobooks, DVDs and video games for free. And depending on your city, the library might even have free printing services, classes and clubs.

If you’re the type of person that buys a lot of books, movies and music – then you should visit your local library!

Use Ebates When Shopping Online

Ebates is one of my favourite ways to save money. Plus, it’s free!

You can use Ebates to earn cash back for shopping online like you normally would. It will automatically apply a cash back percentage on websites like Amazon, Sephora and Walmart. Honestly, it can be used almost anywhere. And you can redeem your cash back straight to your Paypal account.

Rent Out Your Spare Room

If you have an unused or spare room in your house, you are missing an opportunity to make and save money.

By renting out your spare room, you can save money on utilities by splitting the cost with your new tenant.

Or, list a room on Airbnb and just enjoy some extra cash in your pocket each month. And you can rest assured knowing that the type of people using Airbnb are mostly friendly travellers looking for a local experience.

It costs $8.25 per month and in exchange, you can travel the world for FREE.

Right now, thousands of people around the world are looking for pet and house sitters. By signing up for TrustedHousesitters, you have the opportunity to stay in these homes for free. Whether you’re interested in a weekend getaway or a few months of accommodation – this site has it all. Join TrustedHousesitters and start planning your next free trip.

Use Public Transportation

Taking public transportation has the potential to save you a lot of money every month! Start taking the bus or using a city bike share service if you have one accessible.

Not only is this better for the environment, but it will also save you on gas and maintenance charges.

Plan Out Your Gas Stops

I learned this one from my boyfriend and honestly, it’s saved us a lot of money over the years!

The next time you need to stop for gas, check a website like GasBuddy.com to find out which gas station in your city has the cheapest prices right now.

Even though you’re only saving a couple cents per litre, that can really add up at the end of the year!

Use Swagbucks

Swagbucks is an online rewards website that makes it really easy to save and earn extra money every month. You can earn “Swagbucks” by doing web searches, taking surveys, playing games and shopping online. Once you have enough points, you can redeem them for cash and gift cards.

I just redeemed a $25 Amazon gift card and spent less than 2 hours total on the site. So easy!

Pay Off Credit Cards in Full

It’s okay to use a credit card, even when you’re trying to save money.

It’s not okay to spend more money on your credit card than you can afford to pay at the end of each month.

Avoid racking up debt and getting hit with interest charges by paying off your credit card in full at the end of each month.

Participate in a Money-Saving Challenge

I’m currently participating in a money-saving challenge that should leave me with $1,456 at the end of the year. And I barely notice the money that I put into it.

It’s pretty simple. Start the challenge on a Monday and put away a mere $1. Then, add another dollar each day of the week. By Sunday, you should put away $7. The weekly total comes out to $28 savings, which adds up to $1,456 at the end of the year!

Every little bit counts!

Final Thoughts

If you start implementing all of these ways to save money, then you have the potential to save literally THOUSANDS by the end of the year!

If you’re hungry for more content about saving and making money, check out some of these posts:

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33 Comments

Dear Maya, I find your infos more than helpful. We, people, women especially, need these tricks to stay grounded when it comes to spendings 🙂
I am trying to put money aside for a while, by implementing some of these rules and, it works.
I will add the ones coming from your article too as I find them perfectly easy to implement.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Bless you!

8 kids?! Girl, it sounds like you have got a full house! I can barely manage saving money for just myself and I can’t even imagine how much harder it must be with a family so big! Hope you found some helpful tips and side hustle ideas! 🙂

You know what, I needed to read this post. I used to hate spending money, I would always keep it in my bank and I wouldn’t spend a penny. HOWEVER, for the last 1/2 years all I ever do is spend money, ( mostly on crap that I don’t need ) I love spending money and having new things!! I also work so I do think I deserve to spend money on things I want, but I literally spend it on the most pointless things just to spend money. If I see some cupcake silicon cases I am going to buy them straight away, I might not need them but I just want them for the sake of it lool! I definitely need to start taking the money out of my bank and putting it away, or giving it to my mum!! this post helped me so much so thank you xx

Sophia I’m totally with you on spending money for no reason sometimes. Honestly, I can’t pass up a good deal – so if something is on sale, a part of me wants to buy it even if I have no use for it at all! Here’s hoping that we can keep that money in our bank account instead! 🙂

These are some really good tips. At the beginning of the year I looked at our expenses and couldn’t believe we had so much going out in bills, then I realized a bunch of it was to subscriptions for things we don’t even use. It cut our monthly bill in half!

These are some beneficial tips! I started drinking less, or only going out on like drink specials nights. Another tip is to have a set budget of how much you want to spend when going out. For example, in China 100 kuai is the largest note, that’s about $13-$15 dollars. I just take that in cash, and only spend that. I definitely need to do some more swagbucking! Thanks for sharing!

Tyra that is SUCH a good tip, especially when you’re travelling! When you don’t have any extra money on you, you’re not tempted to spend it. And if there’s something you really want to get, you can always go back later! 🙂

Quitting smoking and drinking is such a big one! My parents smoke like, a pack a day, and it costs them so much money. It’s probably the hardest tip to implement on this list for addicts, but it’s also the one that will save the most cash! Great post + pinned!

There are some great tips here. I know that I also eat out too much and I am aware of how much extra money it costs, so I am going to try to cut down! The meal prepping will take some serious discipline for me. For some reason, it’s always been a challenge!

I really enjoyed reading this! I’m definitely going to use some of your advice! A few months ago I did go ahead and cancel our gym membership when I realized that we hadn’t been in over a year. We have access to a fitness center where we live now, so it was just a total waste of money!

Welcome

I'm Maya, a digital nomad turned travel agent who loves inspiring others to live life on their own terms. This blog is where I share my hard won knowledge of working online, blogging & travelling the world. Thanks for visiting!